I had previously done a board and batten treatment and the bottom piece had been acting as my baseboard. The paper floor is significantly lower than the carpet was, so I was left with about a 3/4 inch gap.

I’m so upset that I can’t find the photo from our house when we first bought it. The upstairs bathroom had white linoleum floor (that had come unglued by the tub) and fish wallpaper… YES! big. colorful. fish. I wish I could say that it had been a child’s bathroom, but the couple we bought the house from didn’t have any kids, which means this was just their taste!

When we moved in, all I wanted to do was get the wallpaper off the bathroom walls and paint it and I did, dark brown. I didn’t even fix the floor, mainly because it was our first house and I didn’t know how to do much. We got two cats and the upstairs bathroom was a perfect place for their litter boxes. These cats were monsters, they flung litter and food all over that bathroom, under the linoleum, behind the toilet, scratched up the wall and trim around the doors.. it was a wreck!

When my allergies finally couldn’t take them any more, we said goodbye to the kitties and I had to address the bathroom.

I told my husband that I wanted to tile the floor, so before I got home from taking the cats to their new forever home, he had that stuff ripped up and in the trash pile. He’s my demo man! He hates fixing or updating stuff, but he can tear it down quicker than you can imagine! He also took out the toilet and pedestal sink, then I got to work!

Quick Tip: When you take out a toilet, shove a towel or something down in the pipe, because if you don’t, fumes come out and it will stink up your whole house for days… don’t ask me how I know. 🙂

Here is a picture of my work half way through grouting the floor. Once finished, I had to wipe off the haze and it looked great!! It was by far the best looking thing in the bathroom as you can see from everything that was wrong.

I picked out this tile from Home Depot, the guys there told me exactly what I needed for the job. I had to get backer board, screws, mortar, tile, grout (I picked white pre-mixed grout, because I knew this bathroom wouldn’t be used a lot and I like the solid white look and not having to mix grout), a grout float and I even went to a free class they were holding that showed how to install tile… I felt like a master!

Once the floor was finished, I primed and painted the top portion of the bathroom wall dark grey. I knew I wanted to do a board and batten treatment on the walls in the bathroom, so I started on the wall opposite of the toilet and sink.